Never got a chance to pop in here and say welcome to all the new forum members!

I'm so glad the forum was finally fixed because it was so dead around here (but a good kind of dead as people won the contest or pro'd out). Still it's nice to see new faces and make new friends - just the kind of thing I needed to get my writing back on track. I'll be more determined than ever now to keep on writing so I don't miss out on getting a chance to meet some of you at the workshop!

Good luck to everyone who has entered so far this year and I'll be seeing you around!

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! I am very excited to finally be a member of the forum. I've been stalking this forum weekly for the last year waiting for it to get fixed. Honestly, it's some of the best evening entertainment I've found. Plus, the resources and advice are unparalleled.

"So... my name is Amy, and I'm addicted to writing."

"Hi, Amy..."

"Welcome, Amy. We here at the Forum don't judge each other. We accept each other for who we are and encourage each other to turn our addictions into productive activities in which we find fulfillment and satisfaction and not utterly destructive ignorance and despair."

;)

More about me: I've been an avid writer since grade school but only recently decided to move forward with it. I've received four minor heart-wrenching rejections in that last year from WOTF, but the learning curve has been impressive. I'm most excited to get feedback from writers much more experienced than me. I love my family and friends, but honestly, they don't know much about writing -- not even enough to know what they don't know. Apparently, a voracious reader doesn't make a dependable critic.

I write predominantly sci-fi and fantasy, but I sometimes foray into alternative history, historical fiction, and creative nonfiction. Aside from the Forum, I also haunt David's blog, Brandon Sanderson's Youtube channel, Galaxy's Edge eMag, Persistent Visions eMag, and the local library. I'm a binge writer and could easily write all day for a week to crank out a story, the difficulty being that I'm a stay-at-home mom with a 3-year-old and twins on the way. Yeah... we'll see how that works out.

Anyway, happy to be here and excited to finally get to ask questions and make comments!

Welcome, you three! Settle in and get comfortable. It's a lot of fun around here.

If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. ~ Mark Twain2015, Q4: R2016: SF, n/a, SHM, SHM2017: SHM, n/a, F, R2018: HM, ?

Hey everyone. My friend in the post above, Fujimoto, convinced me to register here as well now that we can.

I've only really known about this contest for a year or so, but I've already given it a shot three times. First story was rejected, second go an honorable mention, and well, I'm still waiting to hear how the third did... Hoping the upward trend continues, but who knows?

I'm more on the fantasy than SF end of things when it comes to what I write. I even got a (rather lengthy) complete fantasy novel that I've been in the process of touching up for a while. Hope to get either it or my short works published before too long,

Greetings to all those who've de-cloaked since my starship last past through these portals. It's great to see so many new members - I was rather wondering whether an all-devouring black hole was lurking outside the Forum's index page.

So here's another little message from the Old People. Some of you may be under the mistaken impression that today is not Thursday. Under the Forum system of weekday names, today is actually Wedthursday (or, according to a certain seditious revisionist clique Thurswednesday). In other words, every day is officially Thursday until the results come out, hence we can go on saying results invariably come out on a Thursday.

Here is a further message for those who may be under the impression that Ishmael is insane:

Ar, shiver me timbers, me hearties, he be madder than a louse on my wooden leg!

Anything written in blue ink on my account is attributable to Long John. The management do not accept any responsibility for his remarks or for any ships he may sink, etc.

Ishmael wrote:Greetings to all those who've de-cloaked since my starship last past through these portals. It's great to see so many new members - I was rather wondering whether an all-devouring black hole was lurking outside the Forum's index page.

So here's another little message from the Old People. Some of you may be under the mistaken impression that today is not Thursday. Under the Forum system of weekday names, today is actually Wedthursday (or, according to a certain seditious revisionist clique Thurswednesday). In other words, every day is officially Thursday until the results come out, hence we can go on saying results invariably come out on a Thursday.

Here is a further message for those who may be under the impression that Ishmael is insane:

Ar, shiver me timbers, me hearties, he be madder than a louse on my wooden leg!

Anything written in blue ink on my account is attributable to Long John. The management do not accept any responsibility for his remarks or for any ships he may sink, etc.

Thanks for the greeting, Ismael!

Anyway, I realized I haven't said anything about myself. I'm working on being a writer. I've been published twice in small press anthologies, Rococoa and Black Power: The Superhero Anthology, but since they were for minuscule amounts of money they don't count against my WotF attempts. Getting any place higher than rejected in WotF will be a lot harder than getting into those anthologies!

I want to work in horror, SF, and fantasy, both adult and young adult. I have so many ideas I want to experiment with, but recently I decided that for WotF I need to focus on polishing the same story over and over, submitting it again and again, as opposed to trying a new story each quarter.

Fujimoto wrote:I want to work in horror, SF, and fantasy, both adult and young adult. I have so many ideas I want to experiment with, but recently I decided that for WotF I need to focus on polishing the same story over and over, submitting it again and again, as opposed to trying a new story each quarter.

I wouldn't recommend submitting the same story quarter after quarter, because Dave may start to recognize it and get bored with it. A better approach might be to wait a year or so before submitting a repeat, giving yourself plenty of time to think the story over and edit in the meantime. (I prefer to submit a new story every quarter unless one of mine has seen *drastic* changes, but that's just a matter of personal preference.)

If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. ~ Mark Twain2015, Q4: R2016: SF, n/a, SHM, SHM2017: SHM, n/a, F, R2018: HM, ?

Like several other new forumites, I'm a long time forum visitor/lurker - for over a year - as I also couldn't get logged on. I'm super happy to have finally gotten on here, I feel like I know some of you guys from reading your posts for so long. Anddd now that I've typed that out loud, it seems a bit creepy. Please know I meant that in a totally non-creepy, lurker-y, way! ;)Anyway, I'm Alicia, and I've submitted to WotF for the past 7 quarters - Q2 is still out - before that 4 HM's, 1 SHM, and 1 rejection (it appears I felt the need to be well rounded in my experiences, but it's a bit of a bummer that R broke my HM streak - ahh well).

disgruntledpeony wrote:I wouldn't recommend submitting the same story quarter after quarter, because Dave may start to recognize it and get bored with it. A better approach might be to wait a year or so before submitting a repeat, giving yourself plenty of time to think the story over and edit in the meantime. (I prefer to submit a new story every quarter unless one of mine has seen *drastic* changes, but that's just a matter of personal preference.)

I wouldn't recommend submitting the same story quarter after quarter, because Dave may start to recognize it and get bored with it. A better approach might be to wait a year or so before submitting a repeat, giving yourself plenty of time to think the story over and edit in the meantime

I completely agree with Peony here. Submitting the same story over and over might not get a contestant the best results. Even though I also think that heavily revised HM's or SHM's are fair game when it comes to rebsumitting.

A few pages back Peony also said something about not liking to post her contest results on her signature. Even though each person has their preferences, I think that posting your contest history might be of some value. I'm aware that in the bigger publishing world out there any results from WoTF that aren't a win are pretty much worthless. But when a person posts their contest history and then ends up winning, that might give other people some insight on their streak of results before that win.

Some people seem to go on a streak of HM's before their win. Others seem to earn more sporadic mentions until they win. So it might (or might not) help a person to understand if they're on the right track or not.

Plus, yeah....I'm not going to lie.... I don't think there's anything wrong with a humble brag every now and then

PS- A big welcome to all the new arrivals. Get ready to start twitching

RuiMiguelCid wrote:A few pages back Peony also said something about not liking to post her contest results on her signature. Even though each person has their preferences, I think that posting your contest history might be of some value. I'm aware that in the bigger publishing world out there any results from WoTF that aren't a win are pretty much worthless. But when a person posts their contest history and then ends up winning, that might give other people some insight on their streak of results before that win.

Some people seem to go on a streak of HM's before their win. Others seem to earn more sporadic mentions until they win. So it might (or might not) help a person to understand if they're on the right track or not.

Plus, yeah....I'm not going to lie.... I don't think there's anything wrong with a humble brag every now and then

That is absolutely fair. I joined back when a certain controversy was still fairly fresh, and one of the various points of discussion I saw at some point or other mentioned this contest and all of the hype that goes with it. That, quite honestly, played a big part in my initial decision not to place my contest history in my signature. (The fact that I didn't yet have a history probably helped, as well.) It was entirely a personal choice, and I don't have a problem with other people posting their histories in their signatures.

I suppose it couldn't hurt to put my history in my signature... I'll consider it.

If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. ~ Mark Twain2015, Q4: R2016: SF, n/a, SHM, SHM2017: SHM, n/a, F, R2018: HM, ?

inky_illuminarium wrote:Hi everyone, another newbie here - first sub was Q4 2016, which I just found out made finalist! *faints*

I'm pretty certain this was just beginner's luck though since after poking around on this site I found out that flash pieces are a tough sell, and my story was only 1,000 words. Still, feeling tremendously lucky and excited to have made it this far.

I look forward to being a part of this wonderful community!

Congrats! Though do you mean Q1 Vol 34, which would be Q1 2017 (though submissions were made in 2016)? The 2016 workshop and awards already happened.

inky_illuminarium wrote:Hi everyone, another newbie here - first sub was Q4 2016, which I just found out made finalist! *faints*

I'm pretty certain this was just beginner's luck though since after poking around on this site I found out that flash pieces are a tough sell, and my story was only 1,000 words. Still, feeling tremendously lucky and excited to have made it this far.

I look forward to being a part of this wonderful community!

Congrats and welcome! Although I think Jeremy is probably right about the quarter... I've noticed a trend toward shorter stories getting "higher marks" in the contest, but if you win, I think a 1000 word flash piece would be the shortest by far (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Congrats!! Joni said 1-2 weeks. I'm really trying not to get my hopes up (and failing miserably - I seem to be useless at everything today). Let the stress eating commence! Time to stockpile the chocolate...

If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. ~ Mark Twain2015, Q4: R2016: SF, n/a, SHM, SHM2017: SHM, n/a, F, R2018: HM, ?

Let me suggest not giving any hints as to which story is yours. Granted, your user name likely isn't your real name, but it's still better not to have any suggestions, because you might say x or y and might affect a judge. Granted, I believe Mike Resnick is the only judge who pals around with us, still, if he's a judge this quarter...

Hey, total newbie here. 1st time submitting to WOTF with 1st sci-fi short story I've ever finished garnered a Silver Honorable Mention. Went into this blind and just subbed a story I really enjoyed writing.

If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. ~ Mark Twain2015, Q4: R2016: SF, n/a, SHM, SHM2017: SHM, n/a, F, R2018: HM, ?

Hi, I'm Clive. I live in Cornwall, England, and have subbed 7 or 8 times over the past 3 years or so. I've got a couple of HM, but nothing further so far. To be honest, I've joined the forums to see if results for a quarter appear any swifter than on the blog.